A rush of protective love overtakes Lukas. Stronger than his jealousy of Yvan Guryev. Stronger than anything on Erthia, the protective surge intensifying as a horrifyingly multi-eyed raven flies down to light on Vogel’s shoulder.

Find Yvan Guryev, Elloren, Lukas rages. Find him and anyone you can with any power to ally with. Free yourself from our Sealing spell and unbind your magic.

Then light this bastard up with the full might of your Black Witch power.

CHAPTER FIVE

FIRE AND SHADOW

Elloren Grey

The Dyoi Forest
Eastern Realm

Elloren.

Yvan’s deep voice shudders through me, quickening my pulse. The flame aura encompassing me flashes through my vision, overtaking it with chaotic gold as the hostile purple forest surrounding me cuts out of sight.

The flame aura builds, coming in from the northeast. My body shivers against its potent flow as it sweeps through my tangled affinity lines with dizzying heat. As if it’s trying to burn a path across the distance between us.

I gasp, disbelieving even in the face of it. Yvan, are you alive?

The conflagration intensifies, and I can sense explosive yearning in its power. My mind casts about. This aura swept in so fast after the scorpio attack—after Lukas pushed me through a portal to the Eastern Realm.

Sacrificing his life for mine.

My throat clenches with choking sorrow. I can barely breathe as I remember my last glimpse of Lukas, his green eyes locked with mine as his back was hit by Vogel’s dark fire.

The flame aura seems to sense my anguish, its flow intensifying around me to the point of vibration.

Sweet Ancient One.

I’m sure this is Yvan’s flame. I’ve been swept up in this flow of Wyvern power before, in his bonding kiss.

A wilderness of disorientation wrests hold, hot and raw, over the world-upending possibility of Yvan, alive, and Lukas, lost to me forever. Devastated tears glaze my eyes as I remember Yvan’s words—

A dragon’s kiss binds him to his mate. I’ll know when you’re in danger. I’ll sense any pain you experience.

The anguish intensifies. Could Yvan have somehow survived and be in hiding like me? On the run, my features grayed by an Elfhollen glamour...

A child’s scream cleaves through the Wyvernfire’s roar.

I startle, hard, and the fire rips away from my lines with such force that I’m pitched in the direction of its northeastern flow, my hands and knees slamming onto the ground. The purple landscape snaps back into view as the demon-sensing rune Sage marked on my abdomen begins to sting.

Pulse thundering, I register everything before me in one sweeping glance.